VCB presents the Wayne Rooney Show ROW

by Andrew Leung

July 17, 2026

The King Tide crew for the Wayne Rooney Row: Ashe Jackson-Williams, Elizabeth Argiro, Wayne Rooney, Joe Hart, Micah Richards, Cindy Lin, Andrew Leung.

The inquiry arrived shortly before noon on Monday, July 6th: "We are looking at potentially filming some of our world cup pundits rowing on the Hudson River for our BBC World Cup coverage and wondering if you would be able to facilitate this?" The message requested dates less than two weeks away. A fairly ambitious project with a wildly ambitious timeline that would potentially garner international exposure for VCB?  With only an inkling of what the request entailed, I dove straight in. A few hours earlier, Silke, one of our regular Wednesday rowers -- and definitely more of a football fan than I -- reached out internally about an on-air wager made by a BBC pundit working on the World Cup.

Wayne Rooney, a former Premier League football star and current BBC Sport commentator, promised, "If Norway gets to the quarterfinals, I'll go on the River Mersey and I'll row down it." Of course, we know that Norway dispatched Brazil 2-1 in their Round of 16 match, thanks to two goals by the "Striking Viking" Erling Haaland. Shortly thereafter, Haaland reminded "Wayneyboy" about his promise. With fellow pundits Micah Richards and Joe Hart onboard -- figuratively, but later literally -- Wayne Rooney asked to change the venue to the Hudson River, as they would be covering the World Cup finals locally -- if the BBC producers could manage to arrange it. And manage it, they did. Of course VCB is the premier location for rowing on the Hudson River, so we were a logical fit. (Google's algorithm seems to think so too.)

This project was a culmination of 9:00 pm calls and 3:00 am emails, thanks to operating across a number of different time zones. After a week and a half of frenzied calls, emails, video chats, and video tours of the boathouse space, we were finally given the green light on Thursday night. This was largely due to some of the BBC's internal concerns, as we had secured the HRPT commercial filming permit two days earlier. (A big thanks to Ben and Kiera of HRPT for helping us expedite review and approval despite HRPT's website indicating a preference to receive requests twenty-one business days in advance.)

On Friday morning, our three protagonists marched down the south side of Pier 40, stone faced and ready to make good on their promise. Or so I imagine. I couldn't stand around watching, but I did see a small group start walking towards the Boathouse. Some of the camera and sound crew noted, "That's Micah and Joe," so that was a pretty good clue. One of the BBC producers, at my suggestion, brought a small England flag to fly off the stern, so I was attending to this in the shop. (The VCB bow flag was non-negotiable.) This English flag had no grommets, so I carefully punched holes into it to zip tie it to a flagpole. I hope this wasn't too much of an affront to the Crown. [Please, Charles, I'm not the Andrew you should come after.]

Phil provided a safety orientation, emphasizing that everyone should remain on the water, and not in it. The combination of his reassuring words and life jackets, strapped tightly onto all of our new rowers, seemed to assuage their initial trepidation. Wayne, Micah, and Joe marched down the gangway to the floating dock, where the VCB volunteers awaited the rest of their crew.  We loaded up the BBC rowers plus two cameramen in as stern and bow passengers. Wayne, Micah, and Joe expressed concern at the tippiness of the boat until we slid outwards to trim the boat. Ingo loaded another BBC contingent onto the chase boat, consisting of more cameramen, a sound technician, and at least once producer. We were very well documented, as we set off from the floating dock. Coxswain Cindy Lin reviewed basic rowing commands and started us on a lap around the basin. Through her careful coaching and prompting to row "just like the Norwegians" (and the magic of film edits) we looked somewhat capable as we made our first loop around the embayment. Ashe and Elizabeth proved to be capable stroke rowers, setting a steady cadence for our BBC first timers to follow.

Emboldened by the success and relative painlessness of the first lap, Micah grabbed his improvised drum kit (a five gallon bucket used in cleaning boats, and a paddle) to prepare us for the next part of this adventure. Fueled by Micah's drumming and roars to "ROW!", we sprinted along the length of the basin, picking up speed. Fortuitously, we stopped before broaching the pier line, which was expressly verboten by the BBC's liability people.

We were met by line handlers Phil, Lucian, and Rona at the floating dock to offload the BBC crew before the VCB rowers brought King Tide back to the davit. Perhaps misunderstanding Phil's intent to stabilize the boat for the group to depart, Micah locked hands with him and bicep curled Phil halfway onto the boat, across a widening chasm of water.  Phil's life flashed before my eyes, as I mentally planned his rescue before the incoming wakes crushed him between our dock and boat.  Fortunately, Phil engaged his core and managed to stay out of the water.

As Wayne, Micah, and Joe headed up the gangway for their post-row interviews with the BBC crew and The Guardian, we rowed King Tide around to the ladder.  After she was secured on her dolly, cleaned, and wheeled back into her berth in the garage, I breathed a sigh of relief -- I could finally sleep in on Saturday. 

Thanks to the VCB volunteers that showed up to make this event a success: Phil, Cindy, Elizabeth, Ashe, Lucian, and Rona.  Thanks to Ben and Kiera of HRPT for working with us on the film permit. Thanks to the BBC pundits, Wayne, Micah, and Joe, for being such good sports about the wager, and for graciously posing for pictures with us. Thanks for the BBC crew and producers for working so closely with me on this adventure -- you have my number.  We'll take you out for a row anytime, even if your liability people didn't let you get on a boat on Friday.